Four Day Weekend Highs & Lows

It has been a long LONG weekend!  Lemme just break it down for you.

Friday

No school for Matt.  Do you really need a four day weekend for Labor Day?  Monday and Tuesday were already half days!  Just don't even bother opening school until Tuesday!  Friday morning Eric's mom picked the boys and me up to go get Matt's tux.  It only needed some minor altering, basically just needed to let the pant legs out a few inches.  I paid for it myself (hurrah for automatic savings) and we went back home.

Eric was supposed to get out of work at 3:30 so that he would have enough time to walk home and get a shower before his dad came to pick us up for the rehearsal at 5.  This was pre-arranged, but his boss just couldn't let him go until 4:15.  He barely made it out of the shower on time.  I packed my purse up with a few diapers, wipes, sippy cup, baggie of cereal, two motorcycles, and a fireman.  There wasn't much room left for my wallet so I stuck the important things- my ID, debit card, and EBT card- in the inside pocket of my camera case, and threw that on top.

Nicole wanted everyone there 10 mintues early, but we got there a few minutes late.  It was ok though.  We were still the first people to arrive.  Once we were all inside the Father started telling us what order the bridesmaids would we walking in.  As he's doing so, the best man, the groom's brother, started making strange sounds and shaking his arm in a weird way before he fell over.  Yeah, he had a seizure.  His poor mother!  She's an RN though, so she didn't lose her cool.  One of the other groomsmen is an EMT and the maid of honor is almost an RN, so he was in good hands until the paramedics arrived.  We thought it had been caused by dehydration.  He'd worked 25 out of 48 hours, had been walking between two jobs, and hadn't eaten anything since lunch the day before.  As it turns out, though, he'd had a few of these episodes in the previous weeks, but hadn't told anyone about them.  Scary shit.



We went on with the rehearsal without him or the groom's mom, and there were no other hitches.  Except for Matt, who cried walking down the aisle the first time around.  He did better the second time and I felt like he'd be ok during the actual wedding.  After that we all went and had dinner at this really great Italian restaurant that I love, and had a good time.  Matt got along really well with the flower girl, and I felt even better about how he'd do on Sunday.

Eric's mom took us home, so when we switched the car seats into her car, I reminded Eric to get the camera, which he told me he forgot in his dad's truck.  Well, it wasn't in the truck.  He realized it never even made it into the truck from the church parking lot.  He sat it on the side of the bed while he strapped Lucas in, and never grabbed it.

WTF?!  Do you remember what was with it?  My ID, debit card, and EBT card!

So we drove back to the church to look for it in the parking lot but it wasn't there.  The best we could hope for was that the Father or his wife had found it, and that we'd get it back on Sunday.

Saturday
Saturday I worked and got home at about 6.  Eric's mom let us borrow the car so she wouldn't have to make the trip back up to get us.  Eric had dinner all ready when I got home and all of our facny schmancy clothes hanging on the shower curtain ready to be grabbed.  That was all he got ready though!  He's not too good at that stuff still.  So we ate and I ran around getting everything else the boys would need to spend the night at his mom's house, while I spent the night in the hotel with Nicole and the other girls.

We had a good time, went through a couple of bottles of wine, and played Dirty Minds until 1 in the morning.

Sunday
I woke up on Sunday morning with the song from The Corpse Bride already stuck in my head.  "A wedding, a wedding, we're going to have a wedding!"

We'd set the alarm for 8, but most of us were up by quarter of 7.  We were so EXCITED!  We had breakfast and waited around for the stylist to come at 9.  She came with another girl, who was still a student, to help out.  We got our hair done two at a time.  I was one of the first, and got my hair done by the student.  I think she did a great job, but I have pretty manageable hair so there wasn't much of a challenge.  Two more girls got their hair done and Nicole's mom got there.  I'd told her I'd do her nails, so I got started with that.  She still needed to get her hair done, along with the flower girl, groom's mom, and of course, Nicole!  Plus everyone still needed makeup, and it was already 12 and the wedding began at 3. 

The photographer showed up around 12:30 and he was *such* a nice guy.  We had just been talking about maybe picking up some pizza and he offered to go pick it up for us.  So we ate when he got back.  Nicole was starting to stress out because of the time.  One of the bridesmaids did her own makeup but the rest of us were planning on getting it done by the stylist and Nicole hadn't even had her hair done yet!  The girl who did her own makup offered to do mine, and I agreed, so that we could save time.  I did get some false lashes though.  Very nice :D  Nicole got her hair and makeup done, finally, and we helped put her dress on and we made it out the door on time.

The ceremony was beautiful.  I cried watching Nicole walk down the aisle, she was just SO angelic looking.  Really, really, a beautiful bride.  (tearing up remembering right now!)  Matt cried walking up with the pillow, but it wasn't that big of a deal.  People thought he was adorable.  I wanted to say hi to Eric and Lucas quickly so I did, but I didn't know we were supposed to be lining the steps outside the church.  One of the girls was waving me over to hurry, so I did and... well, I stumbled down the stairs a bit.  The stairs curve, so one side is super narrow, and the other is nice and wide.  The girls were on the narrow side.  Add that to the heels, which weren't unmanageable, but I don't wear heels much, and the long dress, and yeah.  Luckily I hooked my arm around the railing before I got too much momentum.  I have a huge bruise on my arm now, but it's ok, because only a few people chuckled.  Everyone blew bubbles instead of throwing rice, and it actually looked really beautiful with all of the bubbles floating through the air.  I can't wait to see more pictures, there's only about 3 on Facebook yet.

The difference in Nicole's before and after stress level was amazing.  She was just SO happy and relaxed after that short walk down the aisle.  I'm so happy for her.  We climbed into the limo for pictures, but it was raining lightly, so only Nicole and her man had a few pictures at a place called The Rose Garden.  On to the party!

The reception was fun, I even got Eric to dance with me!  Lucas was hilarious, Matt didn't dance, and everyone had a great time!  The bar closed at 9:30.  I had such a long day, I had no idea it was so early when we were all kicked out.  But whatever, everyone had fun.

Except that no one found my camera. :(

Monday
Labor Day!  We ended up having a picnic in the park yesterday with our neighbors and Eric's dad and a couple of his aunts, and one of our neighbor's friends.  It rained pretty much all day, but we were lucky enough to get a big pavilion that no one had reserved.  We were thinking of reserving it and getting an alcohol permit, but obviously no one had the money.  It just happened to be empty anyway.  We want to do it right for Memorial Day next summer.  Pay for the reservation, get electricity supplied to it for music and crock pots and stuff, and have an alcohol permit and have a HUGE party.  But that's for next year.  We had fun yesterday without all of that.  The boys kept running in the rain, Luke's new sneakers are completely soaked through, and Matt and I both have a cough now.  But there was a lot of good food and good company!  We started packing up at dusk and let me tell you... it got dark FAST!  Once we got home I threw the boys in the tub, got them ready for bed, and just barely put the food away.  I was SO tired.

Today
I'm still freakin' tired.  I cancelled my debit and EBT card and requested new ones.  $10 for a new check card?  Ugh, bitches.

I have piles of laundry to do today, and I haven't even gone to get the quarters yet.  As soon as Luke wakes up... till then, I'm going to try to get a short nap in.